Ferrari: Alonso could have finished second or fought for win

Fernando Alonso could have finished second or fought for the win in the Bahrain Grand Prix, if he hadn't been slowed by the issue with his DRS device, that's the view of Ferrari technical director, Pat Fry.

Ferrari number one driver Fernando Alonso could have finished second or fought for the win in the Bahrain Grand Prix, if he hadn't been slowed by the issue with his DRS device, that's the view of technical director, Pat Fry.

Alonso eventually finished eighth, but two unscheduled pit stops early on, when his DRS became stuck open, compromised his race, and the fact he was not able to use the overtaking device after that also hindered his recovery.

Felipe Massa had a torrid afternoon in the sister car too, and he finished a lowly 15th.

"This was a very complicated Sunday for both drivers," Fry reflected. "On lap 6, a problem occurred with the DRS on Fernando's car which forced us to bring forward his first stop to try and fix the rear wing which literally turned upside down.

"The first attempt from the mechanics was not enough to fix the problem and a second stop to try and fix it further cost valuable time. It's a real shame because even with a damaged car, his race pace was among the best and it should have been enough to see us finish second or even fight for the win.

"Massa didn't have an easy time either and after the collision immediately after the start came problems with his tyres: it's not yet clear what provoked the first incident, while the second was almost certainly a puncture. It's very probable that in part, this can be attributed to debris on the track.

"Even though we missed out on a good result, though, we leave Bahrain in the knowledge that we can fight at the front and so we are even more motivated to keep improving".

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali meanwhile also felt they missed and overall he feels the Scuderia has underperformed a bit in the first four races of the year.

"This is definitely not the outcome we expected after showing all weekend long that we were capable of fighting for the top places" Domenicali stated. "Today's result needs to be put behind us in a hurry."

"[Furthermore] an initial analysis after the first four races indicates that we did not pick up as many points as we should have done.

"In just over three weeks now, we will be back on track in Europe and it will be important to turn this trend around immediately. Until then, we will knuckle down and continue with the development of a car that still has plenty of potential to offer," he concluded.